A lesser known "Mountain West Athletic Conference" existed from 1982-88, sponsoring championships for women’s sports at Big Sky Conference institutions. The Big Sky absorbed the MWAC in 1988, forming one league for both men's and women's competition.

Since TCU joined the conference in 2005, BYU and TCU have begun to develop a heated rivalry. For at least the 2008 and 2009 football seasons, the TCU team placed a BYU helmet atop its tackling dummy.[3]

Bowl games

The Mountain West Conference will have agreements with the following bowls for 2010-13: The MWC champion will receive an automatic berth in one of the five BCS bowl games if:

ranked in the top 12 of the BCS Standings. (Utah qualified under this criterion in 2004-05, 2007-08 and TCU in 2008-09)

Or if ranked in the top 16 of the BCS Standings and its ranking is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.

Elevation

The Mountain West's slogan is "Above the rest," and most member institutions are at more than 4,000 feet above sea level. This impacts endurance in sports like football, soccer, and the distance races in track & field and swimming meets, and aerodynamics in baseball, softball, golf, and the discus and javelin throws. The Mountain West's institutions have the highest average elevation in NCAA Division I sports.